Reed Richards (Earth-11584)
History "Ben, no matter what may happen or what these powers will entail, I will find a way to change you back, I promise." '''Reed Richards '''is a scientist and the de factor leader of the super hero team the Fantastic Four. Inherently brilliant in several different scientific fields. This comes from the encouragement of both his parents, Nathaniel and Evelyn, who fostered his natural scientific curiosity at a young age and devoted themselves to his education. An only child, Reed's prodigious mind was apparent when he was already speaking in complete sentences and reading at a first grade level by the time he entered pre-school. Screening him early, Reed was enrolled in classes far above his age level in order to try and challenge his exceedingly brilliant mind. This naturally made him a target for bullies, but he rarely got into fights, preferring to think his way out of situations. By the time he hit high school by the age of 11, Reed was finding it more and more difficult to think his way out of scuffs with far older classmates. He found a friend in a young Ben Grimm, who was a junior in high school and six years older than him, when Reed was assigned to help Ben get a passing grade in his college algebra class. Reed and Ben would become lifelong friends as a result of these shared experiences. Graduating with a bachelors degree from Empire State University at age 17, Reed would go on to pursue post-graduate work at the same institution. It was here he first began to theorize on theories of quantum particles (building off the work of Abraham Erskine, Anson Starr and Herbert Wyndham) and most importantly, interstellar and interdimensional transport. These theories were groundbreaking, but so far advanced that they were treated as ludicrous, at best. He did draw interest from Susan Storm, another graduate student at ESU, whom Reed developed something of a crush on. It was also at this time that Reed met and worked with Victor Von Doom. Working together the two of them built a device for instantaneous transportation across different spatial dimensions. But Victor perceived a flaw in Reed's calculations, correcting them without Reed's knowledge. When the test was conducted, the experiment self-destructed, seemingly killing Victor in the fire. This death would haunt Reed for some time. Over the next ten years, Reed would become independently wealthy both as a real estate investor and as an inventor in his own right, with many of his patents being used in everyday modern technology, such as high-speed rail, Internet Wifi hotspots, and most notably, his repulsor technology being adapted and utilized by Stark Industries as the basis for Iron Man's weaponry (although Reed himself frowned upon the use of his technology for military purposes.) During this time Reed would also have an on-again off-again relationship with Sue Storm, who would act as his research assistant for much of this time. Eventually Reed developed plans for a ship to conduct in-space research beyond Earth orbit, complete with shields that could withstand the solar winds and the interactions within the highly energetic Van Allen belts. Reed obtained government funding for his project initially, and was working in depth with NASA both on the construction of the ship as well as its research purposes. However a new Presidential election and Congressional austerity measures threatened the funding for his projects. Given that he had a lot of his personal fortune and time wrapped up in the project, Reed decided to proposition the government to let him fly the mission, with little to no government oversight on the conditions. As a crew, Reed chose his old friend Ben Grimm to fly the mission, given that he had been a successful test pilot in the Air Force. He also recruited Sue, since she knew almost as much about the experiments as he did. Lastly, he took along Sue's far younger brother Johnny, who was interning for him at the time (and also could act as a co-pilot with Ben). Their mission in place, the four launched from Mission Control in Florida and seemingly the mission was going off without a hitch. However, a rogue solar flare combined with incoming energies from an unknown source (in reality, the source was Jane Foster attempting to use her Field Bridge technology to travel to Asgard) caused the ship to veer off course, the shields interacting with the Van Allen belts in random ways and exposing the four to exotic cosmic particles. The ship was forced to crash land in the Florida Everglades, and the four were rescued by the Air Force. Shortly after landing in New York, the four experienced a radical transformation, each gaining special powers thanks to their exposure to the cosmic radiation. In Reed's case, this grants him the ability to stretch and deform his body into almost any shape he wishes. The four can't take stock of their newfound powers to much, as a hostage situation at the bank inside the airport draws their attention. Reed, Johnny and Sue thwart the criminals, Ben hiding himself away due to his transformation into a rock-like Thing. The media, fresh off the circus with the Thunderbolts team, dubs the trio the Terrific Three. Later, Reed and company settle into the Baxter Building, a former skyscraper that Reed had bought for his research company, and converted the top floor to living quarters. The three again answer the call to aid New York, this time attempting to stop the Inhumans Medusa, Gorgon and Crystal from robbing a Wall Street bank. This time they have difficulty handling them, but are eventually aided by Ben. Seeing Ben's discomfort with his new form, Reed promises to find a way to change him back to normal. A short time later, the four are continuing their investigations into what happened to them, when they are visited by the Inhuman king, Black Bolt, and his brother Maximus. Maximus makes it clear for the four not to intervene in their affairs again, without explaining exactly who they are. The team tries to interrogate the two, with Black Bolt backhanding The Thing into a wall with little to no effort before they depart via their teleporting dog, Lockjaw. Soon after, the four receive word of Medusa and the other two Inhumans accosting Central Park, and the four try to stop them. However, suddenly Ben seems to turn on the others, as if he is not in control of his own actions. The Thing and the trio fight amongst themselves and the Inhumans, as Black Bolt and Maximus also show up retrieving the other Inhumans (who seem to give up on the fight suddenly.) The NYPD stop the fight amongst the four, and proceed to "quarantine" them inside the Baxter Building pending further investigation from SHIELD. However, they are soon visited by Crystal, who explains what is going on. She tells them of the Inhumans, an offshoot of humanity living on the Moon in the city of Attilan, and how Maximus has enlisted the help of a man named Puppet Master to control certain members of the royal family to commit crimes in an effort to control Black Bolt. She leads the three to a warehouse near the docks where Puppet Master is set up, the four escaping in a flying car that Reed had been working on earlier. The Thing initially fights against them again due to Puppet Master and Maximus' control, but it isn't long before he breaks free of the control and destroys the control over the other Inhumans, Black Bolt interceding and taking out Maximus himself. Nick Fury arrives shortly thereafter, introducing himself and explaining his relationship to the Inhumans in short. Reed then announces to Fury the official team name...The Fantastic Four. Reed's scientific expertise would be drafted away from his team's success and celebrity, though, as he was drafted by Dr. Stephen Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, to help devise the final protocols for dealing with Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk. Reed built a ship with deep space engines out of a store of vibranium provided by the Inhuman king Black Bolt and, with Tony Stark's help, tracked down a planet devoid of sentient life where Banner could live out his days in isolation, if things came to that. After completing the rocket (and learning of its use), Reed and the rest of the Fantastic Four continued their hero work, before placing themselves under the jurisdiction of SHIELD due to the Avengers Protocols, gaining Maria Hill as their liaison agent. Shortly after fighting the self-professed super villain The Mole Man (in reality just a crazy man named Harvey Elder), Reed and the Fantastic Four were dispatched to Sokovia to help UN peacekeeping forces sent there after the events of the Ultron Encounter. While there, the team were approached by a man named Boris, a representative of the ruler of the nearby country of Latveria, who invited the four to meet his master, known only as Doom. Reed and company take him up on their offer, going undercover with SHIELD's Maria Hill to discover more about the dictatorial Doom and his potential illegal arms sales to rogue nations. While in Latveria, Reed discovered that Doom was in reality Victor von Doom, his old college roommate, who had somehow survived the explosion on the college campus and was now clad in an armored suit and ruling his native country. Victor seems to play nice with the quartet, saying that the accident was in the past, and invites them to stay the night. However, Reed is gassed and kidnapped during the night, his body replaced by a Life Model Decoy briefly. After being rescued by Maria Hill, Reed confronts Doom with the rest of the team, only to find Ben Grimm (who had not been replaced) miraculously transformed back into a normal human being, thanks to a device built by Doom. Ben tries to defend Doom from his friends, causing Reed and the rest of the team to turn away, not wanting to create an International Incident. However Doom recaptures them, placing Reed in a super-cold environment, thus making his elastic body become brittle and painful to him. Hill and Johnny rescue Reed from this trap, and regroup with Susan and Ben (who had discovered the truth about Doctor Doom), with the latter exposing himself to the cosmic radiation again to transform back into the Thing. Together, the four manage to barely defeat Doctor Doom, though he escapes into high earth orbit in a space capsule of his design. Reunited as a family, the four returned to New York as a team once more, with Reed and Sue announcing their engagement shortly thereafter. Though the entire time events were nagging at the back of Reed's mind, as he had detected that Bruce was possibly returning to Earth. Eventually, the Hulk and his Warbound Clan did return to Earth, forcing Reed to explain his actions to his fiance and the rest of the team his role in the final protocol that had sent him off world. The Fantastic Four attempted to intercept the Warbound before they could level New York, but the Hulk was more than a match for them, imprisoning Ben, Sue and Johnny and keeping Reed separate from them. Reed discovered that through an error, Hulk had wound up on a different planet than the one selected for him, and had been subjected to a terrible tragedy. Eventually Hulk revealed that he intended to take his jailers (including Tony Stark, Nick Fury, Stephen Strange and Black Bolt) back to Sakaar with him, provided he didn't drop them off at the Contest of Champions first. However before this could happen, She-Hulk interrupted and saved the team from their fate. The four desperately try to stop Hulk when he becomes the Worldbreaker, threatening to destroy the Earth, though they are ineffective at best, as Hulk is eventually stopped by an orbital gamma suppressor built by Stark. In the aftermath, the relationship between Reed and the remainder of the team is strained, though apparently the engagement between Sue and he is still on. Powers & Abilities * Elasticity: The cosmic ray accident which granted the Fantastic Four their powers gave Reed virtually total control over his molecular structure, allowing him to stretch, deform, and manipulate his body in extreme ends. He can stretch across long distances, expand his mass to cover a large area, and even concentrate his mass into his fist to increase his physical power. * Genius Intellect: Reed is one of the smartest men in the MCU, holding PH'ds in Engineering, Physics and Mathematics from some of the most prestigious universities in the world. He has used this intellect to create patents to some of the underlying technologies used in the MCU (such as the repulsor technology used by Tony Stark in his Iron Man suits) to become an independently wealthy scientist and researcher. He also invented the unstable molecule, which he utilizes in the team's uniforms. Weaknesses Reed's elastic body is susceptible to the weaknesses of elastic materials such as rubber. Exposure to extreme cold will cause his body to become rigid and brittle at a much faster rate than a normal human. He also could be hurt by extreme heat. Being rapidly stretched by force (such as by some sort of taffy machine) would likely cause him great distress. Personality wise Richards is often considered cold and uncaring by those who don't personally know him. It has been speculated that he has some form of ASD that limits his abilities of social interaction, but this is unconfirmed. To his friends and family, he is much more compassionate, though. Film Details Reed Richards appears in the following films within the Earth-11584 continuity. In all cases he is portrayed by actor Matt Bomer.. * Thor: The Dark World (2013) only * The Fantastic Four (2014) * The Incredible Hulk 2 (2015) * Captain America: Civil War (2016) * Fantastic Four: Doomsday (2016) * Iron Man 4 (2016) * Spectacular Spider-Man (2017) only * World War Hulk (2017) Category:Earth-11584 Category:Earth-11584 Characters Category:Good Characters